The meltdown of the financial system, collapse of the housing industry, massive unemployment, and the lingering recession we find ourselves mired in. These are the factors that are going to change the service industry forever, for the better I believe.

Service based businesses are going to find that people are going to spend money, but, they will reserve the expenditures for companies or individuals that they genuinely like and treat them as valued customers.

The days of not caring if a customer calls you back or gives your company name as a referral are over. Those two things will soon be the difference between life or death for a service business.

Mrs. Smith will tell friends that you are a great service provider if in fact you are a great service provider, it will take more than a low – low price to get the job, it will take excellent service and a skill set that includes listening and customer service.

Referrals are gold and having customer reviews are absolutely necessary, as necessary as a business card and a website.

If you believe that time is money you soon will find that the time spent getting to know Mrs. Smith will be invaluable. People do business with people that they like or a business a friend of theirs likes.

Timely arrivals at jobs, friendly demeanor, respectful tone, and real compassion for the problems you are there to help solve. These people have called you for help and they do not need the fast talking, rub their nose in the problem, and take as much money as you can get and run approach.

Be a real person and relate to the problems at hand. Give your opinion as a real opinion not slanted at making as much money as you can, but better slanted toward the customer getting the absolute best service at the best price.

A win – win situation. For the customer, they get value and quality, for the business, you get a customer that will refer your company, will be happier with the final results, and be a repeat customer for the long term success of your business.

The reality today is that consumers have had a hard time surviving, as have many businesses, the level of disposable income may be less but the needs that a consumer must fulfill have not changed, if anything that cost has gone up.

Your service, although needed, if considered a luxury can be put off until better economic conditions prevail. You as a service professional need to elevate the value and quality of the services you provide along with the personal touch of being genuine and friendly. Personal touches will win repeat customers.

Your customer will spend money, your job is not only to provide a great service and customer experience it is to provide a great value to your customer.

The last few years have witnessed the clear emergence and prolific growth of an industry that was hitherto virtually nonexistent. The industry we are talking about is the lawn service industry. Twenty years, or even fifteen years ago, this was virtually an unheard of industry. It is not that people didn’t have lawns then – we have always lawns for centuries, if not millennia. Rather it is because people didn’t take very particular care of their lawns, and were as such not willing to spent substantial sums of money on their care. Subsequent years, however, have given rise to a trend where people are increasingly ready to spend and spend some more on their lawns and general ‘landscape management,’ with the trend being what eventually gave birth to what we refer to as the lawn service industry.

The lawn service industry is one that employs thousands upon thousands of people all over the world in various capacities. Aggregated figures are hard to come by, as this is one industry that is yet to recognize itself as being one entity. It is also the sort of industry where people tend to work on casual basis, meaning that the people who may be working on it today could turn out to be extremely different from the people you find in the industry ten months down the line. But at any given point in time, you are certain to find the aforementioned thousands upon thousand of people working in various capacities in the lawn service industry.

An industry is, by the way, defined as an aggregation of firms providing a similar (or almost similar product), and usually competing against one another. There are, of course single firm industries – where the whole business is dominated by a single monopolistic player – but such industries are rare, and getting even rarer by the day as most countries in the world embrace economic liberalization. The lawn service industry, on its part, is a true industry: one that is an aggregation of numerous firms, providing various lawn services in their respective jurisdictions. It is usually the sort of industry where the typical firm tends to be rather small. Most lawn service firms are, indeed, constituted of less than ten staff members, and this is the sort of industry where a firm with a hundred people would be considered a big firm, with a firm that boasts of a thousand being considered a ‘giant.’

The product of the lawn service industry is a service. The service comes in handy for the people and organizations who are keen on having good looking lawns, but who don’t have the time and energy for the labor that goes into the making of such good looking lawns. The lawn service firms step in the gap, with their promise to give you the lawn you desire for a fee. All you typically have to do is show them the plot where you want the lawn established (whatever its current state), give them the agreed fees, and several months down the line, you will have a fantastic lawn right there.